Wild Wild West

The fun old TV series becomes a tired series of special-effects scenes. Will Smith tries, but is miscast and utterly unbelievable. (And I'm sorry, but having an African-American as a "top government agent" four years after the end of the Civil War simply cannot be made believable, despite valiant attempts to try.) Kevin Kline, a fine actor, does what he can as Artemus Gordon, but seems to be recapitulating his "In and Out" persona (Ross Martin was never that prissy.) Kenneth Branagh, as the villain, plays it so far over the top you can't even see the top from where he his. Salma Hayek is undeniably lovely, but is wasted (she's basically an afterthought). Special effects are good, plot is stupid, script is awful. As a fan of the old series, I was very disappointed.

So much potential and ALL of it wasted!

We have:

1) A good director, Barry Sonnenfeld, with two great comedies to his name ("The Addams Family" and "Addams Family Values");

2) An Oscar-winning actor, Kevin Kline, well-known for his comedic work ("A Fish Called Wanda", "Soapdish") as well as dramatic ("Sophie's Choice", "The Ice Storm");

3) Another Oscar nominee, Kenneth Branagh ("Hamlet", "Henry V"), famous for directing, as well as writing and acting

AND THIS IS THE BEST THEY COULD DO !?!?!?! What gives?

First and foremost, it should be noted that just because Will Smith is popular, that doesn't mean he's good. There's something about him when he acts that makes him appear as more of a "ham" than an actor, a scene-stealer who's insecure with being the star of a film so he overacts to conceal (albeit unsuccessfully) the limitations of his acting abilities.

And for Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh to play second fiddle to HIM? Absolutely criminal. What's next? Jack Nicholson playing a supporting role to Pauly Shore?

Then there's the storyline - are we really supposed to believe that James West (as played by Smith, a black man) is a hero of the Civil War? Of course, the casting of Smith serves primarily as a set-up for all the racial humor (which gets old fast). Logically, though, it's an asinine premise, a fact which audiences obviously picked up on given the tepid reaction to Smith's so-called "star power" in this weak take-off on a really good television series.

Who's responsible for this mess? Maybe it's the fault of all the writers (a total of 6) for writing it, or Sonnenfeld's mess for directing it, or Jon Peters' (and Sonnenfeld's) mess for producing it, or Warner Bros.' mess for distributing it? Whose ever it is, it should just be shelved and forgotten as an embarrassing mistake.

The opening credits of this film were highly entertaining, and the closing credits featuring Will's WWW rap was fun as well. Everything in between was a pure, unadulterated, steaming pile of crud! I sat and marveled at the drek that was being spewed out on the screen from this supposedly Summer Blockbuster movie and was totally stupefied. I've seen bad movies before, and I've certainly seen my share of big-budget, special-effects money machines - but none was as poorly conceived as this. What makes it even more amazing is that we had actors with at least a proven track record of success. We had a director (Barry Sonnenfeld) who has managed to put together his share of successful movies. And if this weren't enough, there was a pant load of big explosions and digital effects! So what went wrong?

The script, the script, the script. It boggles my mind that this screenplay actually made it to production. The dialogue was atrocious. The attempts at humor were pathetic. The characters had about as much depth as the screen they were being projected on. Hayek's character was completely pointless, and had less than no reason to be there. The repeated exchange of racial/disabled insults between the black Jim West and the legless Dr. Loveless was shameful. It seemed that about every twenty minutes Kline's character launched into a diatribe reiterating the plot, and articulating what they were doing and why. I can only assume this was intended for the audience members who had just woken up and needed to get caught up with the "action."

My biggest regret in seeing this film is that wish I could have warned you earlier not to see it. I'm sure there are several movie fans out there right now who unwittingly fell victim to this movie, and are at this moment still lying in bed with the covers pulled over their heads, swearing they'll never go to the theater again as long as they live. Don't go see this movie, don't let your kids see this movie, don't even recommend it to people you truly despise. If, on the other hand, you have a morbid fascination with the continuing devolution of Hollywood and aren't afraid to face definitive evidence that our culture is moments away from claiming creative bankruptcy, this one is a must see.

I think this movie is, beyond anything, pure entertainment. I don't think for a moment that this is intended to be a historically-accurate archive of what happened during the life of President Truman. I think it was an idea based on something that could have happened, and then explored upon. It's meant to be entertaining with a smidge of accuracy. If I were grading this purely on accuracy or historic factor, I'd grade it lower but I'm grading it as entertainment. Sure there are some cheesy parts, but it's funny, it's silly, it's somewhat kind of historical, and that's good enough for me. It's entertaining.

I like Will Smith and his movies. I enjoyed ENEMY OF THE STATE, INDEPENDENCE DAY and even MEN IN BLACK. So I watched WILD WILD WEST for tradition's sake, I guess you can say. It was 1999's July 4 Will Smith hit. I am positive that this is the worst I have ever seen Will Smith in. I tried to enjoy this movie, and at parts I did, but most of it was lame and not very enjoyable, I'm sorry to say.

Dr. Arliss Loveless, (Kenneth Branagh) a confederate rich bad guy is trying to sell parts of the USA to the highest bidding countries, using his giant machines of destruction (walking mechanicals spiders and stuff) to take hostage of President Ulysses S. Grant (Kevin Kline). The two best agents the U.S. Government has, James West (Will Smith) and Artemus Gordon (also Kevin Kline) are sent to stop Loveless and save the president, as well as the country. West also has a personal score to settle with Loveless, since he was responsible for the death of his parents. The beautiful Rita Escobar (Salma Hayek) tags along to try and save her father, who is also being held hostage by Loveless. She attracts the eye of Gordan and West.

The acting jobs in this are fair, but the writing spoils it. The gorgeous Salma Hayek is underplayed, and her character is pretty much pointless except to have a good-looking girl in the movie. Both Will Smith and Kevin Kline do fairly good jobs acting, but the characters are too boring to enjoy. I'm not sure if Kenneth Branagh or the writing is responsible for the incredible stupid and annoying Dr. Loveless.

This movie is very similar to Men in Black, only less modern and on a smaller scale. (save the country, not the planet) Another big difference between the two was that Men in Black was more fun, cooler, and had better characters, villains and gadgets (not to mention Tommy Lee Jones). If you are in the movie for a Will Smith movie, go rent ENEMY OF THE STATE. If you're in the movie for a lighter Will Smith movie, go rent MEN IN BLACK. I'd try to avoid WILD WILD WEST, but give it a try if you like.